"Leilani has keen insight that keeps me focused on what really matters."

Tonia Wright, Manufacturing Executive Lucent Technologies

"Leilani is a joy to work with. She has a brilliant integration of heart and mind."

Brent Snow, Partner 3D Learning,LLC

"Leilani is an outstanding facilitator, mediator and community builder."

Sajit Kabadi, Educational Bridge-builder - Regis Jesuit High School

National Playback Theatre
uses interactive forms of non-scripted theater to bring feelings,
possibilities and stories to life. Through
movement, music and improvisation, people discover or reinforce their common
humanity. This model deepens, accelerates and enhances dialogue by
uncovering different world views to enhance understanding, empathy and
trust. In the telling and seeing of real stories played back, we build
community, as well as honor uniqueness of experience. Uncharted terrain
becomes safe and exciting, resulting in transformation, shared vision and
new ideas. Our work has dissolved conflicts, built trust, supported new
learning and heightened commitment. We are group of highly skilled artists
that demonstrate the rapid rapport, cohesion and synergy essential to
building collective intelligence. We take improvisation to new heights by
purposefully drawing on our pool of artists to create new configurations of
players. This challenges us to practice our values and demonstrate how
groups and communities can function and thrive in change, transition and the
chaos of the unexpected.

National
Playback Theatre Principles

Co-creation
– We are all part of a dialogic process, we are active participants, not
passive spectators

Collaboration
– Accepting what is offered and building upon it for the sake of the
whole

Collective Wisdom/Deep Democracy – The
whole is more intelligent than any isolated part; wisdomcomes from
theinformed,
engaged dialogue of individuals in service of the collective

Dynamic Authenticity
– Being
fully aware of our selves, thoughts, behaviors, beliefs and blind-spots;
consistently giving and receiving feedback from a place of consciousness
to move the process forward

Empathy and
Perspective – The ability to see
the larger context, to challenge beliefs and
assumptions; the ability to step out of one's own "story", to enter into
another's experience and grasp it; the ability to gain distance, humor,
healing and insight

Numinous Experience
– There is an unexplainable mystery revealed through the process of
Playback, enhanced through the use of ritual, art and aesthetics; a
deeper way of processing and representing complexity
that fosters the seeds of the transcendent within all of our experiences

Radical Equality
– A radical,
democratic belief in the intrinsic worth of all of our stories–
conflicts dissolve, consensus is gained and the collective learns when
no single narrative is privileged above others

Safety, containment, play, experimentation –
Spontaneity, the practice of improvisation and the Playback tools build
a safe space to learn and make optimal choices

Whole
Brain Integration –
Listening deeply to stories, feelings, experiences and the unstated from
the intelligence of the heart, mind, body and intuition.
Through theatrical embodiment and reflection of our work, hidden
assumptions, overlooked insights and positive connections become readily
apparent.

Best Situations:Intact work teams; Organizations of any size; Conferences; Retreats and
situations in which people need to build rapport, foster new ideas, see the
whole or solve conflicts rapidly; working with international and diverse
groups; for people who want to do more than just talk; when you need a fresh
approach to sharing perceptions, seeing the whole system, building or
repairing relationships.

Resources: We offer
workshops and coaching on our approach to the Playback process and how to
bridge these models to dialogue. Contact us if you would like to sponsor a
course in your area. Playback Theatreis a powerful tool for
eliciting experiences, issues and building empathy. It is performed in many
localities and cultures around the world. Playback Theatre was developed in
1975 by Jonathan Fox in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley.
www.playbackschool.org. We are member of the International Playback
Theatre Network,
http://www.playbacknet.org/iptn/index.htm. Art image by
www.diversityarts.com.